Sunday, April 08, 2007

WE’LL MEET AGAIN

Civic Theatre

08.04.07

Ted Ray did it. Vic Oliver, too. But I never thought to hear the violin played on the variety stage again. Andy Eastwood is the proud inheritor of the tradition, and on Easter Day in the Civic fiddled a selection of patriotic favourites, as well as playing banjo and Formby ukulele. He rightly lamented the demise of the comic song, though the selection he brought was ample proof of why they did not deserve to survive.

Duggie Chapman’s nostalgia-fest, appropriately entitled We’ll Meet Again, is in its fifth irony-free, over-amplified year. As well as the excellent Mr Eastwood, we had Shelley James, with memories of Ann Shelton, Vera Lynn and Our Gracie, and likeable innuendo from comic Steve Barclay.

The matinee began with a medley, or switch as we might have called it back then, and managed to cram in The Ovaltineys, Donald Peers’ Babbling Brook, Tex Ritter’s Deck of Cards, Good Night Sweetheart and two of Jimmy Perry’s pastiche songs from TV.

The show was perfectly timed, with a plethora of memories of entertainment’s finest hour. ENSA – Every Night Something Awful – was never like this.

Musical Director was Martyn St James, working brilliantly at a versatile keyboard, its possibly unpatriotic logo obscured by a huge Union Flag …

Perhaps it’s rubbing up against all those squaddies in her new role as Forces’ Sweetheart – she’s danced in Iraq and Afghanistan since she was last in Chelmsford – but the masterclass seemed a little coarser: we certainly needed the “gone too far” monitor in the front row.

While she did her slap and her stretches in the Green Room, Iestyn Edwards warmed us up with an artless, affectionate autobiography. From Southwark Cathedral to Aldeburgh, with portraits of his Country and Western father, stage psychic mother, and his Aunt Sophia, who surely merits a show of her own.

The views expressed in these pages are those of the authors alone. Extracts and images are included as Fair Use for the purposes of review. If you are the copyright owner, please contact me to have your work acknowledged or removed.

meagray@gmail.com

About Me

I first wrote reviews for the Essex Chronicle in the early 70s, part of a team led by "Jon Richards". When he stepped down, I took over the organization of the Arts Pages. In 1988 I was succeeded by Mary Redman, though I continued to contribute reviews until the Chronicle stopped carrying regular coverage of amateur performances. Peter Andrews of the Chelmsford Weekly News kindly allowed me to write for his paper. After he retired, his work was continued by Jim Hutchon, who recruited me again to share the load. After Jim died, I continued to provide professional reviews of arts events in and around Chelmsford and Brentwood, until I finally hung up my pen and my word processor in December 2017.
Apart from the newspaper - now The Chelmsford Times - my views have appeared on The Reviews Hub, Remote Goat and Sardines. And of course, all of them were shared on this blog.